TAA Musings

Bill Barclay is the former director of music at Shakespeare’s Globe and the current artistic director of both Concert Theatre Works and Music Before 1800, New York City’s oldest early music presenter. His Broadway and West End credits include: Farinelli andthe King, Twelfth Night, and Richard III, all starring Mark Rylance. Barclay's original music has been performed live in 197 countries and forty-two
US states, before President Obama, for the Olympic Torch, at the United Nations, and three times for the British royal family. Called a “personal polymath” by the London Times, Barclay regularly works as a director, writer, composer, actor, producer, and conductor. He is the creator and director of several of the most important concert events in the last ten years, including The Chevalier (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Music of the Baroque, Harlem Chamber Players, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Chautauqua, Caramoor, and others); Secret Byrd (St Martin-in-the-Fields and international twenty city tour); Peer Gynt (Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra); and Antony & Cleopatra (Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Virginia Symphony Orchestra). Barclay has received commissions on five occasions from the Boston Symphony Orchestra. A contributor to The Guardian, Barclay has published works on the music of Shakespeare by both Cambridge and Oxford University Presses, and lectures on Shakespeare and the music of the spheres around the world. He frequently collaborates with early music ensembles and regularly appears in major festivals throughout the world. Barclay has collaborated with soloists such as Yo-Yo Ma and John Williams, and dozens of the world’s most prominent conductors. Recent collaborations include Mozart’s Last Year with the National Symphony Orchestra, Apollo Resurrected with United Strings of Europe and Gandini Juggling, and Beyond Beethoven 9 produced by Carnegie Hall with Marin Alsop and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He has created works of concert-theatre in some of the world’s most iconic places: the Hollywood Bowl, Kennedy Center, Southbank Centre, Washington National Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe, Hampton Court and Buckingham Palace. Barclay has directed the Silkroad Ensemble on tour, conducted City of London Sinfonia on tour, and composed the historic Hamlet, Globe-to-Globe, which toured to every country on earth.

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Alitha Evelyn Martinez never wanted to do anything but draw comic books. She says “I had a choice: I could strive to become a teacher and help others to achieve or pack my duffel bag and guitar and move to New York City. I did the latter without knowing what would happen, or where to go. But when you’ve got a story to tell, no one and nothing can stop you.” Her professional career began in 1999 when she was penciling Iron Man for Marvel Entertainment. Martinez then had the opportunity to work on titles like X-Men: Black Sun, Marvel Age Fantastic Four, Black Panther: World of Wakanda, X-Men Gold Annual, Moon Girl, Mark Morales Spiderman, Batgirl, and many, many more. More recently she has worked on It’s a Bird, Sensational Wonder Woman, and Nubia & the Amazons for DC comics. Martinez has done larger projects that required more than just penciling and inking in graphic novels, like Vampire: My Boyfriend Bites, Kung Fu Masters, and Quest for Dragon Mountain for Lerner Publications. Over the course of her career she has worked for all the major comic book publishers, including Marvel, Image Comics, and Archie Comics.

Martinez is a professor at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and has achieved her life-long dream of being a writer, having completed two stories for Epic Publications. She has also created political cartooning for the New York Post. In her spare time, she works on creator-owned titles Yume and Ever and Foreign, which she publishes through her company, Ariotstorm Productions. Martinez participates in the United States Department of State Speaker Program, teaching comic book workshops and bringing the art of storytelling to people all over the world.

In 2018, Martinez won an Eisner Award (Will Eisner Comic Industry Award) for Blank Panther: World of Wakanda. She also won the GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book in 2018.

Jerry Zaks began his career as an actor appearing in plays and musicals across the country. Most notably, he appeared in the original production of Grease and the original cast of Tintypes. He recently directed his twenty-sixth Broadway show, The Music Man, starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster. His production of Mrs. Doubtfire is currently running at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre and on tour in the United States.

Zaks has received four Tony Awards for directing and has been nominated eight times. He's also received four Drama Desks, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, and an Obie. His credits include Hello, Dolly! (starring Bette Midler), A Bronx Tale (both the play and the musical), Meteor Shower, Nantucket Sleigh Ride, Shows For Days, Sister Act, The Addams Family, Guys and Dolls, Six Degrees of Separation, Lend Me a Tenor, House of Blue Leaves, The Front Page, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Smokey Joe’s Café, Anything Goes, La Cage aux Folles, Little Shop of Horrors, The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Foreigner, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, and the original production of Assassins.

Zaks began his career directing the extraordinary plays of Christopher Durang including Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, Beyond Therapy, Baby with the Bathwater, and The Marriage of Bette and Boo. He directed the award-winning film Marvin’s Room, starring Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton, and Who Do You Love, which was featured in the Toronto Film Festival. Zaks is a founding member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City. In 1994, he received the SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers) George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. 

Zaks graduated from Dartmouth College in 1967, received an MFA from Smith College in1969, and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Dartmouth in 1999. In honor of his lifetime achievement in the American theater, Jerry Zaks was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2013.

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